Météo-France is calling for moderate mistral Friday through Sunday, gusts of 40 to 55 km/h, deep blue sky, visibility at 80 kilometres. For sailors, it's a gift. For everyone else, it's better still: it's the peninsula as you dream it, swept clean, sharp, alive.
The mistral has a bad name here, people swear it tears everything apart, sends you mad. The truth is different. Three days of moderate mistral, and you have the finest weather of the year. The sky is rinsed. Colours sing. And best of all, tourists stay locked in their hotels. The coastal path is yours alone. Sénéquier sits nearly empty at 9am. L'Escalet beach takes the waves with no one on the sand.
My advice: wear something warm, take a windbreaker (yes, really), and climb to Chapelle Sainte-Anne Saturday at first light. The view from that hill, with the wind screaming through the olives and the gulf below churning all the way to the horizon, you won't find anything finer in this whole region. I mean it.
